Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

Oh, and I missed out a CURS: What was all that stuff with Kat doing on there? She wasn't mentioned at all.

[Pierced Musie]

I am so over this new obviously tortured soul that is fake!Olivia. The attitude is just waaay too forced and I can't believed they rushed Hunter's personality change/VJ friendship just for this story.

I had high hopes that we would get an Angie/Nick reference from either Irene or Alf, which would have made up for that entire Diner scene... but alas, that has just been completely wiped from memory. Considering there are similarities with the stories the monkeys behind the scenes missed a perfect opportunity to get some longtime fans praising them.

And was I the only one hoping Nate would fail at the babysitting and have to be rescued by Kyle?

[CaptainHulk]

It's not so much me being on town's side (Judgmental Hypocrites, TBF), I'm just tired of the whole Blackmail plot and you know things are wrong when you can't sympathize with "the victim"... 

 

[H&Alover]

Considering the last time we saw Olivia was 11 years ago and I may be missing something why is she being called 'fake' Olivia?  VJ yes that was a sudden switch but Olivia?

That dressing  down of Charlotte was OTT both on Irene's and Alf's part but Hunter himself didn't want to talk to or have anything to do with her and her approaching him in a busy Diner wasn't a good move on her part, she has embarrassed him by sleeping with one of his schoolmates!  I suppose as Hunter is living under Alf's roof (or in one of the vans) makes him a kind of guardian, but Irene had no good reason.  Leah had more right. Good point there Pierced about Nick/Angie, but wasn't Nick under 16?  Charlotte made another bad move by expecting Zac to put in a good word for her, yes she may have been a good teacher but what she did undid all that. Then going on to try and blackmail him showed her manipulative side again. Which begs the question would he have confessed to Leah about Charlotte lending him that money if she hadn't?   There are always people in small towns like the bay who resort to such childish behaviour such as tipping rubbish on someone's car who has done wrong rather than have the courage to face them as Leah, Zac, irene and Alf have. As for the brick that is going too far, unless of course it was Trystan being fed up with Charlotte's slow progress on finding out if Brax is alive.

Kyle never spoke a truer word when he told Charlotte Angelo's never shied away from employing people with dodgy pasts, couldn't really could he seeing as the bosses themselves walked on the dark side.  As for her sleeping with him to get closer to him he is a fully grown man, but of course he doesn't know she is just using him so he has a shock coming!  When Nate and Ricky go properly public it's got to be obvious even to Trystan that Brax must be 'dead' at least to her, she wouldn't be openly dating another bloke if he was. 

I was thinking that about Ricky being keen on farming out Casey at every opportunity, fair enough if she was working, someone would have to look after him, but it does come across she does it a lot. Loved that scene of when she came home and saw Nate asleep with his arm on Casey.

I did feel for VJ when Hunter and Olivia kept banging on how good it was living in the city, though at the moment I can't see other than anything then just having a joint moan about living in a small town. I have  a feeling there is more to Olivia's back story since her leaving and returning that meets the eye, wasn't she supposed to have inherited Chloe's estate when she turned 16!

 

[atrus]

3 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Kyle never spoke a truer word when he told Charlotte Angelo's never shied away from employing people with dodgy pasts, couldn't really could he seeing as the bosses themselves walked on the dark side

Yes, the line about Angelo's never having had a reputable workforce was an odd standout yesterday which I forgot to mention - it made me laugh out loud. I suppose as a justification for hiring Charlotte you can't very much argue with that!

Onto today, and a big twist in the Charlotte story as Kyle overhears Mr Creepy carelessly bandying about words like 'murderer' on a public beach. Well, personally I thought Charlotte became of very limited utility to Gunno and the Gang the moment the truth about her and Matt came out and pariah status was achieved - but although Ricky seemed keen to give her a wide berth, it didn't stop Kyle leaping into bed with her. Now, however, it looks like even he's going to be impervious to her charms - and moreover, how will she explain what he's overheard? If she can't, I suspect Gunno may decide to drop her lack a sack of hot potatoes - and probably spill her secret at the same time.

I was glad that at least Irene wasn't condoning the brick-throwing today, but I feel that unfortunately that's what happens when you make somebody a public pariah - and Irene self-righteously declaring Charlotte's crimes for the whole diner to hear yesterday may well have exacerbated that situation.

I was cringing during The Talk between Zac and VJ, just because VJ doesn't look remotely young enough to be enduring it. But I did feel sorry for him when Olivia went off on one; I'm not saying you can't be touchy-feely with friends of the opposite gender, but she's only met VJ a couple of times and I can totally understand why he'd develop the impression she was into him - and likewise that she was into Hunter, given the way she was acting. I thought Hunter was being genuinely brotherly-spirited when he told VJ he'd back off; but then he only went and announced that fact to Olivia, which kind of defeated the point - so perhaps it was always his intention to land VJ in it. Disturbing scene with the scars; again my mind leapt to the Chloe and Brad story so I'm hoping they're self-inflicted. Not that that would be a good thing either, but you know what I mean.

The storyline about Nate's dad seems like pretty unwarranted filler. Most characters in H&A seem to go their whole tenures without any meaningful contact with their parents, and I've no idea why we're expected to conclude that Nate's are more interesting than anyone else's. Anyway, I haven't read ahead but I feel the next step is fairly predictable - Ricky contacts Nate's dad and he comes to town out of the blue. Cue much wailing and remonstration.

[CaptainHulk]

 

1 hour ago, atrus said:

Cue much wailing and remonstration.

Or Cooper Sr. eating a fist.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Irene demonstrated minimal human decency in going to check on Charlotte (and convincing Hunter to go see her) but still couldn't resist snobby digs like "Someone had to" about phoning the police.Yes, Irene, cos that did a huge load of good, didn't it? Still can't take Hunter acting the victim seriously. I did wonder when Kyle was telling Charlotte about Brax whether she'd take his "One day everything was better" as evidence that he knew, but apparently not. And now he's overheard something she didn't want him to...

I just cannot accept Fake Olivia as the same character when she's different in every conceivable way: Looks, personality, age, back story... It takes more than having her name drop Chloe a few times, the fact that even Alf, Marilyn and Leah don't seem to have accepted her as Olivia and are treating her like some random girl they've never seen before means I'm inclined to do the same.(I'm convinced that they should have just made her some girl that Irene's met and no-one else has, the daughter of one of her other charges or a relative of an old friend from before she came to the Bay or distant cousin, rather than making a half-hearted stab at continuity and nostalgia that's only managing to alienate any viewer who actually remembers Olivia.)It's making it even harder to find her interesting or likable: Her tantrum at VJ was ridiculous, and if she acts that way around someone she isn't interested in, getting all touchy-feely within hours of meeting and being unable to say anything that isn't dripping with innuendo, then she's got problems.So by the time we find out she does have problems, I'm struggling to find the energy to care.My biggest fear is that it'll turn out James did it and he'll get character assassinated even more to justify her staying with Irene. (It's been pointed out elsewhere that she resembles Early Cassie, although I don't think Cassie got this annoying until at least 2006.Follow that through line and you end up somewhere very worrying...)Leah annoyed me once more palming difficult talks with VJ off on whichever man it is at the moment (I remember her doing the same to Miles), so I'm glad Zac dumped the later talk on her.

Isn't it weird how Nate suddenly starts vomiting back story whenever he gets together with Ricky?It was her that he told the story about coming to Australia after his mum died all those moons ago.She's courting disaster by tracking his father down though, it might not be a happy reunion...

[CaptainHulk]

Well on the James score, I doubt he's to blame (keeping what I've read to myself) though I don't think he helped matters.

[Slade]

Even just watching Nate in that episode with Ricky yesterday he looked happier with her than he ever looked with Kat.  When they were on the beach I just knew Kat would walk past.  I did still feel for her a little bit although she seemed a lot better in today's episode.  She was back to full on professional mode and I quite liked the stuff with Ash.  I am left wondering immediately if they spend time fixing her brother's car whether that could lead to anything.

I was actually pretty delighted if only temporary that Trystan got the stuffing knocked out of him.  It's a shame he was able to discharge himself from hospital so quickly and go back to intimidating Charlotte.  However as much as I enjoyed  him getting a beating this yet again comes back to that fact that Kyle is an extremely dangerous and violent person.  You do wonder about someone who commits yet another serious assault just to protect someone he had a one-night stand with.  And he took very little convincing about Charlotte's explanation of events and the fact that she accidentally killed some guy (although she was obviously paraphrasing what happened with Denny).  He hasn't really thought about the implications of it being covered up.  In saying that I still feel sorry for Charlotte especially over the last couple of days the way everyone's had a go at her.  Not sure why I feel sorry for her.  She killed someone, buried their body and has no intention of even giving her victim's relatives a chance to say goodbye.  She doesn't deserve any sympathy but there you go.  It will be interesting to see what Charlotte does now that Trystan's threatened Hunter and given Hunter is the reason why she's in this mess.

I think Oscar was very presumptuous and clearly displayed double-standards but it is a very good opportunity so I get where he's coming from.  I put his actions down more to naivete rather than not caring about what Maddy wants.  This was clear by his bemused expression when Maddy got upset.  Yes, rather than sit down with him and discuss it like a proper couple she storms off in a childish strop and spends the day with Matt (Hmm where have I seen childish behaviour like that before?).  And she actually seemed more worried about Matt's education than her own boyfriends.  It's funny though because during the stuff with Evelyn and Tank I'd almost forgotten she and Oscar are together.  Matt really annoyed me in that episode the way he spoke to Charlotte but luckily Maddy was there to rescue him.  Not sure what to make about his revelation.  I assume that Charlotte was a way of forcing himself to get over her.

[Angelica]

You are not the only one who forgot that Maddy and Oscar are still together, Slade. Although it seems like it doesn't matter as they are clearly paving the way for Matt/Maddy here. Yet again, Maddy seems more interested in what's going on with Matt than with Oscar. I think the Maddy/Oscar fight just showed the ongoing issues that the two have in regards to their inequality in their relationship which is probably why Maddy prefers hanging around Matt where she seems to have the upper hand. The scripting of Maddy's/Matt conversation in the diner was rather clumsy especially Maddy's "it's me, isn't it?" line rather than going for a subtler but more natural reaction. It's a shame because the acting was really good in that scene - when Matt realises that Maddy is about to figure out who the girl is, his tortured look is note perfect.

I do occasionally feel sorry for Charlotte when all the characters are passing judgement on her without having any real reason to (after all, they don't know what we, the all-seeing audience, know). Charlotte hasn't exactly handled the whole thing well, even if the initial murder was an accident. And the storyline is getting a bit tiresome (especially having Brax shoved into the storyline unnecessarily).